And it turns out - according to the folks at Johns Hopkins anyway - that it might not be such a bad idea either. The new study found that parents punish their older children more harshly, and that punishment is a deterent to their younger children.

(My husband, the older of two boys, vouches for the harsher treatment, "But I deserved it," he said.)

What about you? Do you treat your kids differently when it comes to discipline?